Parts of One
by idealskeptic
Summary: Annie Cresta is raising her son as best she can in District 4 when Haymitch Abernathy arrives and whisks them to the Capitol where she finds something that belongs to her. This is the story of how she adjusts to the missing piece of her life suddenly reappearing three years after she lost it all in Mockingjay. AU for the happier ending.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I'm only borrowing all this. I claim nothing of it as my own.

**Author's Note: **Hi people! This story is AU (alternate universe, if you will) because it changes the ending of _Mockingjay _kind of a lot. I won't say too much so I don't spoil things but it starts three years or so after the last book and begins in Annie's perspective. That'll change later, but you'll see then.

The story is completely written so I'll be posting pretty regularly and if you suggest something I should do in the story, I probably won't because it's all written, lol!

I really do hope you like it and, if you do, please leave me a review?!

* * *

**Chapter One**

(Annie)

"Mama! Some-y body is here!" Jack jumps on the chair beside me and pokes my neck. "Mama, some-y body is here. I'm a-scared, Mama."

I wrap my arms around his small shoulders and try to force myself back into the present. "Is somebody at the front door, Jack, or are they at the back door?"

"On the beach. In a big loud machine." He molds his body to mine and hooks his legs around my waist. "What we gonna do, Mama?"

I press a kiss to the top of his head, breathing in the scent of the sun and the sea in his soft bronze hair. "We're going to go to the back door and see who's here in a big loud machine. Think we're brave enough for that?"

He sniffs uncertainly and digs his fingers into my back and my chest. "Yeah. We brave enough, Mama. 'Specially if we go together."

I'm scared too, but I can't let my son see that. "I'm never going anywhere without you, buddy," I whisper as I get to my feet. Standing, I can see that the big loud machine on the beach is a hovercraft and I'm suddenly even more scared. I haven't seen a hovercraft so close up since I left the Capitol three years ago and came home to raise my son on the sea.

"See, Mama," Jack whimpers, his face buried in my shirt. "I tolded you it was some-y body in a big loud machine on the beach."

I exhale in relief when Haymitch Abernathy steps out of the shadows of the hovercraft. "It's okay, Jack. Remember those really cool oars that you got in the mail a few weeks ago?" He has to remember them because he takes them with him wherever he goes. And I see them lying in the sand where he must've dropped them when the hovercraft landed. "Yeah? You remember? Well, that man there, he's the one who carved them for you."

He tilts his head back and looks up at me with the sea green eyes that still make my heart skip a beat. "Real or not real, Mama? Them oars come from him?" When I tell him it's real, he loses a tiny bit of shyness and turns to look at Haymitch. I can tell by the look on his face that he's about to shout something. "Thanks for them oars, Mister Guy! They is awesome!"

"Haymitch, Jack," I say as I wave the older man forward. "His name is Mister Haymitch."

Haymitch shakes his head and smiles at my son. "Mister Guy works too, unless you're strict about these things. So you like the oars, Little Man? Do you take them out on your boat?"

"I don't gots a boat yet," he pouts. "Mama says I too little for my own. She lets me row on her boat, though. I'm a good rower."

"I bet you are. Hey, Little Man, how about you go get the oars and show me that you've been using them, okay?"

Jack seems agreeable and Haymitch clearly wants to talk to me alone so I put him in the sand and watch him run off. "He won't be gone long," I warn him, "so you better hurry to say whatever is you don't want him to hear."

"It's not that exactly, Annie," he says hesitantly. "Do you remember what you told me Finnick and Mags told you all those years ago?"

I nod. "To trust you if they're not here."

"Trust me?" he asks. "Trust me and come back to the Capitol one more time? With Jack, of course."

I shake my head even as I know I will. "Why?"

"Better to just come, Annie, and find out there. Jack'll need you on the big, loud machine."

He's right, and Jack runs back over with oars before I can do more than nod in agreement. Haymitch gives me a minute to collect myself when he kneels down in the sand and points at the tiny oars. "I don't know, Little Man. Are you sure you used those in the ocean?"

I watch my son square his little shoulders and stomp one bare, tanned foot into the sand. "Yeah, Mister Guy, I did used them in the ocean." He points a chubby finger at a white line on the carved wood. "See there's a salt stain from the ocean. Mister One-Eyed Pete says woods gotta have that stain or it ain't been in the ocean proper."

Haymitch laughs and fingers the stain. "Well, if Mister One-Eyed Pete says that, it must true." He hands the oar back to Jack. "Now, Little Man, are you big and brave enough to go on a trip for a little while?"

He shakes his head and takes three steps backward into my legs. "Nuh-uh. Nope. Not that big and brave. Do I gots to go?"

With shaking arms, I pick him up and settle him back on my hip. "Yeah, buddy, you and me have to go on a trip with Haymitch. Think we can be big and brave together maybe?"

He considers this solemnly. "We can try," he says with a seriousness that belies his almost three years of life.

I agree and look to Haymitch. "Are we leaving now?"

"Let's get a few days of clothes for the two of you and some toys he'll miss if he doesn't have," he suggest. "The hovercraft and I have nothing else to do but take you to the Capitol."

xoxoxoxo

An hour and a half later, with clothes and toys for a week packed, lunch in Jack's belly, and a small argument about whether or not he had to wear shoes all taken care of, I carry him up the ramp and onto the hovercraft. I sit in the seat closest to the ramp and he scrambles to straddle my lap so that he's facing me and can bury his face in my chest. I wish I could bury my face in someone's chest.

I try to distract myself from worrying because I'm tired of Jack worrying about me. So I ask Haymitch a question. "You left Katniss and Peeta in District Twelve to come get me and take me to the Capitol?"

He smiles wryly. "You trust me, remember? Anyway, Johanna was in Twelve so she's flying with them to the Capitol."

As far as I know, Katniss is still technically, and wrongly, confined to Twelve for killing Coin. For her to be going to the Capitol too is very worrisome. I only half hear Jack squawk when he hears Johanna's name. "Aunt Jo-Jo gonna be where I going?" he demands. "Real or not real, Mister Guy?"

"Real, Little Man," Haymitch says, pulling a small bracelet out of his pocket. "In fact, your Aunt Jo-Jo asked me to carry along this seashell bracelet she says you made for her so you'd know I wasn't lying."

"It's Aunt Jo-Jo's, Mama," he tells me, not really noticing when I don't respond. "If Aunt Jo-Jo likes you, maybe I likes you, Mister Guy. Since you did make me my oars. Hey! Did I bring my oars?"

"Sure did, Little Man." Haymitch points to them. "You want to come sit on my lap for a little bit?"

Jack considers it, but tightens his grip on me. "I stay with Mama. You stay there."

He agrees easily and I realize that Haymitch Abernathy doesn't seem the least bit drunk. Another thing to worry about.

I spend the rest of the flight listening to Jack tell Haymitch mixed up stories about fishies who can fly and Haymitch telling Jack stories about woodland nymphs. I wonder for a little while how the District 12 mentor knows stories about nymphs but I don't wonder hard enough to ask.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

When the hovercraft lands in the Capitol, Haymitch helps me to my feet and Jack automatically adjusts himself on my hip. "You got him?" Haymitch asks.

I nod. I'm not letting go of my baby boy in the Capitol. It's not happening.

There's a lounge of sorts nearby and he takes us there. When Jack sees who's already there, he squeals in delight. "Mama, it's Aunt Jo-Jo!" He fists the back of my shirt but leans to reach for her.

Seeing that he's not letting go, she snakes her arm between his body and mine to hug him. "I missed you, Jack. Bunches and bunches." She steps back and hugs me too. "You have a girlfriend yet, Jack?"

He shakes his head and leans back against me. "No way, Aunt Jo-Jo. I still gonna marry you when I'm eight."

Peeta, standing off to the side with his fingers linked with Katniss', coughs to cover a laugh. "Eight, Johanna? Are you sure you can wait that long?"

She flips him off, thankfully out of Jack's line of sight. "Jack hasn't met Brainless and Baker Boy officially, has he?" she asks. When I shake my head, she guides us over to them.

"Jack," I say before Johanna can introduce them by her nicknames, "I'd like you to meet two friends of mine. The one who talked to Aunt Jo-Jo is Peeta and the other one is Katniss."

He hides his face in my shirt. "Are they my aunts too?"

Johanna enjoys that question far too much and Haymitch shoves her to the side when she can't stop laughing.

I look at the two of them and they both nod hesitantly but eagerly. They've met him before but it's been months and he's too little to remember. "Yeah, buddy, but only Katniss is your aunt, Aunt Katniss. Peeta is your uncle, Uncle Peeta. Think you can remember that?"

His brow furrows in concentration but he nods. "Aunt Kat and Uncle Pee."

Johanna wheezes from laughing so hard and I can't help but laugh too. Peeta seems to take it all in amused stride. "At least he didn't say Uncle Pee-Pee," he says, causing tears to leak from Johanna's eyes as she holds her sides. "Hey, Jack? How about you call me Uncle Peeta? Can you say that? Peeta?"

"Peeta," my son repeats to Johanna's dismay. "Uncle Pee-ta. Right, Mama?"

"Exactly right. Those paintings in our house, of the sunsets and sunrises? Uncle Peeta painted us those for us."

He looks at Peeta with renewed interest. "I like them. You should come to my house and paint on my wall."

"What's wrong with your wall?"

"There's no fishies on it," he says, as if Peeta ought to have known that. "I wanna be in the ocean on my wall and there's no fishies on my wall."

He's making sure to take the wishes of a little boy very seriously. "Well, if your Mama says I can come and paint fishies on your wall, I will."

"Come as soon as you can," I tell him. "Are you allowed to come, Katniss? I want you to come too."

"I want to come. I guess I can find out if I'm allowed while I'm here for whatever it is that I'm here for." She shoots Haymitch a pointed look.

He pulls Johanna to her feet. "There's a vehicle waiting to take us where we're going. President Paylor has requested that she be the one to tell you the details."

"That sounds too formal coming from you, Haymitch," Peeta says.

He shrugs. "Can't be helped. Let's move."

xoxoxoxo

The place we're going turns out to be the Presidential Mansion. As I walk through, with Jack asleep against my shoulder, I see that while President Paylor may live here, she has turned it into the center of many different offices and it's more like an office building than it is a home. I still don't like being there.

"Are Beetee and Enobaria going to be here?" Peeta asks when we're ushered into a room that's kept its velvet curtains but contains folding tables and a dozen metal chairs. "Since you seem to have collected victors?"

Haymitch shakes his head. "Doesn't really concern either of them. They'll find out later. In fact, you're mostly only here because Katniss needs to be here and you can handle her better than me."

She glares at him. "I don't need to be handled."

"We'll see, sweetheart." He turns to me. "Johanna's here for you. I'm here for everybody. Don't suppose there's any chance of you letting me or Johanna hold him." My look must answer his question because he turns away and motions to a staffer at the door.

President Paylor arrives a few seconds later. I've seen her on television and I like what she's doing with the country. I like her very much and I trust her. But she looks grim and concerned.

"Thank you for coming even though I asked Haymitch not to tell you why," she says to begin. "I'm sure you're anxious about why I asked you here so let's not waste any more time. Have any of you heard of a man named Titus Hathaway?"

"He's a doctor, right?" Peeta says, his brow furrowed in concentration. "I think he's the one who fitted my artificial leg."

"Yes," she says with a nod. "Titus Hathaway was a highly respected doctor under the old regime. When that regime fell, he disappeared. He was wanted so that he could be put on trial for things related to the Hunger Games, the tributes, and the victors. We assumed that he was killed in the rebel attack on the Capitol, that he took his own life, or that he disappeared and blended into one of the districts more or less friendly to Capitol refugees. We were wrong on all counts, but we never stopped looking for him.

"Thanks to plastic surgery performed by his wife, Cleo, he was able to completely alter his appearance and never left the Capitol. He hasn't gone out much, but he was here. Until a neighbor noticed that his neighbors, Tim and Claire, had strange mannerisms for the diehard rebels they claimed to be. When he noticed that the sixty-something Claire was washing out blood-stained undergarments long after someone her age should have been, he called the authorities.

"A raid was ordered on their first floor apartment. Titus and Cleo Hathaway have been arrested for the crimes we originally intended and two charges of kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment of unwilling humans have been added."

I tighten my grip on Jack, still sound asleep, and exchange confused glances with Katniss. She's as lost as I am. We're sitting next to each other and Haymitch puts a hand on each of our shoulders. "They've been hiding two people in a hidden room since the war," he says slowly, leaning close to us. "Their story is that Titus was hiding in the sewers and Cleo was trying to escape the city during the final rebel push. They say they found two people left for dead and took them out home out of some sense of moral obligation. As doctors, they seem to have treated their injuries pretty well. But they never let them go. They're here now."

"Titus and Cleo?" Katniss asks hoarsely.

"No, sweetheart," he says. "Not them."

President Paylor walks across the room to one of the sets of velvet drapes and twists a braided rope through her fingers. "There is a one-way glass behind this. You'll be able to see them, and hear them if I turn on the speaker, but they won't see or hear you. All in good time."

Johanna must not know everything because she seems as curious as I am when the group of us stand and walk toward the glass. She grips my free hand and seems to keep her other hand ready to take Jack from me.

Paylor pulls on the cord and steps to the side.

Dr. Aurelius is in the room, sitting at a table with two other people. They're playing a card game of some sort. The two people look mostly healthy, if very pale. And they look frightened. I study their faces.

Peeta catches Katniss when she faints, and she faints at the same that I lose my grip on my son. Johanna grabs him and Haymitch pulls me into his arms.

"Is that real?" Peeta breathes as he sits on a chair Paylor pulls over, keeping Katniss on his lap.

I wish he'd be more specific because it's my question too.

"It's real, son," Haymitch says before he's kind and elaborates on his own. "The two people Titus and Cleo Hathaway kidnapped and held are Primrose Everdeen and Finnick Odair."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

It's Jack that pulls me back to reality, just like it always is.

He's standing in front of me, because I'm inexplicably on the floor, and trying to pull my hands away from my ears. "Mama! Mama! I needs you, Mama," he cries when I open my eyes. "What wrong, Mama? Let's go home?"

I drop my hands and pull him into my chest. "I'm here, buddy, I'm sorry," I murmur. "We have to stay, okay? We'll be okay."

I look around and see that Dr. Aurelius is in our room now. He's sitting on a chair in the corner talking quietly to Katniss. The curtain is closed again and Johanna and Haymitch are gone.

"They went to see them," Peeta says quietly, and I realize he's sitting on the floor beside me. "It's real, Annie. Finnick is alive."

"And Katniss' sister? Real?"

"Real. Dr. Aurelius is going to talk to you and Katniss about how they are, physically and mentally, I think, and then he'll take you to see them. He said you'll need to know things and be calm first. That's why Haymitch and Johanna went already."

"Aunt Jo-Jo?" Jack asks worriedly. "Mister Guy?"

"They'll be right back," I tell him.

"Hey, Nephew Jack," Peeta says with an obviously forced cheerfulness that Jack won't see as forced. He holds up a stack of white paper and some colored markers. "Look what President Paylor gave me. Why don't you come sit by me and we'll pick which fishies I'm going to paint on your wall?"

To my total surprise, Jack slides off my lap with me only giving him a single nod of permission and climbs right onto Peeta's lap. "I likes clown fishies the bestest, Uncle Pee-ta," he says seriously.

"Clown fishies? Let's see if I know how to draw those." He smiles at me as he uncaps a black marker. "Go talk to Dr. Aurelius, Annie. We'll be right here."

My legs shake when I stand but I walk across the room and sit in a chair on the other side of Dr. Aurelius. Katniss is wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her green sweater so I give her a break and demand answers. "Is he okay?"

"He's alive, Annie, and that's what really is most important. To their credit, the Hathaways seem to have done a very good job healing the wounds he received from the muttations. There is scaring, mostly on his neck, shoulder, and his right arm. He doesn't have full use of the right arm, the entire right side of his body is a little weak, but Dr. Egan tells me that there are therapies that might help that.

"Mentally, things are a little more complicated. He has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; nightmares, flashbacks, panic attacks… all the things he's dealt with for some time. The difference now is that he's got the added traumatic stress of the muttation attack and the years spent with only the Hathaways and Primrose for company. From what he and Primrose have told me, the Hathaways didn't spend much time with them so it really has been just the two of them. They are dependent on each other.

"But we can work on all of that." He looks between both Katniss and I when he says it. "With a little effort and all of us working together, we can give them both the lives they deserve."

Tears are streaming down my cheeks when I meet Katniss' gaze. She tells me through her own tears that he said pretty much the same about her sister; that her burn scars can be rehabilitated but that her mental scars will take more time.

"We can do this," I say, taking a shaky breath. "We did it for ourselves, for Peeta and Johanna. We'll do it for them."

She nods firmly in agreement and looks to Dr. Aurelius.

"Good, we'll go see them now." He follows us to his feet but stops me before I go further. "There is the matter of your son, Annie. Did Finnick know you were pregnant?" When I shake my head, because I hadn't found out myself until after I was told that he was dead, he sighs. "Then my recommendation is that we introduce Jack and his father after you see your husband."

"One step at a time," I say, repeating a line he's coached me with for almost four years. I drop to my knees beside Peeta and Jack. "Can you be a really big boy and stay right here while I go away for a few minutes?"

"You feel better when you come back, Mama?" he asks worriedly.

I brush a too long lock of soft bronze hair away from his sea green eyes and smile. "Yeah, I think so."

"I stay right here, Mama," he promises. "With Uncle Pee-ta."

Summoning all the courage I can, I leave him with Peeta. Katniss and I reach out to each other instinctively and we follow Dr. Aurelius with our hands clasped together. Johanna's just leaving the room and she grabs my arm. "It's really him, I promise," she whispers. "He's very impatient to see you even though I didn't tell him you were here. It's your sister too, Katniss. She asked Haymitch about the damn cat."

Katniss laughs wetly and we sort of pull each other into the room.

Dr. Aurelius stops us with a raised hand and we wait silently behind him. Primrose is sitting on a sofa with Haymitch and tears immediately fill her eyes when she sees her sister. Katniss goes to her and I'm suddenly frozen in place. Finnick is standing by the bay windows, looking out at the city. I stare at his reflection, and he must see me in the glass.

He's across the room and Katniss and her sister are crying noisily beside me but I still hear the one word he says.

"Annie."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

To be in Finnick's arms again, or rather in his arm because he's only got one wrapped around me while I cling to him, is surreal. I ask Haymitch and Dr. Aurelius a half dozen times if it's real. Finnick asks another half dozen while Katniss and Primrose make it an even two dozen.

I never want to let go of him, even though we haven't said much at all to each other.

And then I feel a pull in another direction. Jack needs me.

I get up and move to what I know is the hidden window. Faintly, and maybe I'm imagining it, I can hear him crying in the other room. I turn back to Finnick, who is suddenly standing behind me. "I'll be right back," I tell him, because I have to go. "I promise."

I leave before he can stop me and run to my son.

His chubby little face is red when he launches himself into my arms as I sit on the floor. "Mama," he whimpers into my chest. "Where'd you go?"

"On the other side of the wall, Jack, that's all. I wasn't gone very long." I look at Peeta. "Was I?"

He shakes his head. "Just half an hour or so. He only really started crying a few minutes ago. He's a very brave little boy."

"I don't wanna be a brave boy no more, Mama," my boy sobs into my chest. "I don't wanna, Mama."

He's overtired and in an unfamiliar place. I need to be brave and strong for him. I hug him tight and starting singing him his favorite silly, sweet song. He loves it even though I can never remember the last verse. I'm just about to start the song all over again, because he's still sniffling, when I hear something that makes my body freeze. It's the last verse.

_As sure as the sun will rise from the sea_

_As true it is that the sky is blue_

_There's only one thing to know about me_

_And that's that you, my sweet, are just perfect for me_

Jack looks at me, and follows my eyes to the doorway. "Is that the song, Mama? Is it?"

I'm crying again as I look at Finnick. His cheeks are wet and he's got his arms wrapped around his middle. He tries to smile, or maybe to speak, or maybe both.

"Yeah, buddy," I tell my son. "That's the song."

"How's this guy know our song, Mama?" He's hiding in my shirt again.

Finnick doesn't look steady enough to move far so I get to my feet and carry Jack to him. "He knows the song because he taught me the song," I whisper, watching my son and my husband.

"You stoled the song from this guy, Mama?" He shakes his head in obvious disappointment. "You bad, Mama."

Finnick answers before I can. "No, she's good. I gave her the song if she promised to sing it to someone else."

"She singed it to me." Jack seems to understand the words even though Finnick is crying hard. He hides his face again and tugs gently on my hair. "Who is this guy, Mama? We're not 'sposed to talk to strangers."

Two sets of sea green eyes are looking at me for answers and it's a question I never dreamed I'd get to answer, no matter how badly I wanted to. I can't find my voice, though. Not until I notice Dr. Aurelius behind Finnick, silently encouraging me to go ahead.

I wrap one arm around Finnick's waist and hold Jack tight with the other. "This guy, Jack, this guy is your papa."

Finnick leans heavily against me and holds his breath Jack reaches up to touch his face. "You gots eyes like me," our son declares, "but Mama looks like me too."

He laughs breathlessly and nods in agreement. "Your mama does look like you. Maybe that's why she's so beautiful, because she looks like you."

Jack shakes his head. "No. Mama is beautiful because she's Mama." He looks at me in alarm when I make a strange, strangled noise that's a product of laughter, tears, relief, anxiety, sorrow, and happiness all at the same time. "What's wrong, Mama? Is we happy or is we sad? I confused."

Dr. Aurelius steps up then and puts a hand on my shoulder before focusing on Jack. "Your mama and your papa are having a rough day, young man. How about you help me get them to a place where we can all sit down and talk?"

Jack likes having responsibility so he immediately climbs down to the floor. I let go of Finnick just long enough to make sure Jack doesn't fall but he grabs my hand and links his fingers through mine. Jack sees this and puts both of his small hands over our clasped ones. "Come on. We follow this guy."


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the delay **in updating! Couldn't be helped. But I'm back and I thank you ALL so VERY MUCH for the reviews you left for chapter four! I solemnly swear to respond to any and all you leave for this chapter!

* * *

**Chapter Five**

Dr. Aurelius takes us into a third room, much smaller and warmer. Finnick collapses onto a sofa and I follow him immediately. Jack immediately climbs up and settles himself on my lap, with his back against the arm of the chair so he can keep an eye on this new man in his life.

Apparently giving us time, Dr. Aurelius sits on an armchair and taps Jack's shoulder. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced. I'm Dr. Aurelius."

Jack shakes his head slowly. "I can't say that name. Can I call you Doc? If Mama says so?"

"You may," he replies when I give permission. "What's your name?"

My little boy squares his shoulders to look as big and brave as possible. "Jack. My name is Jack Odair. Do you know why my name is Jack? Some-y body said my name shouldn't be Jack. Some-y body said my name should be the same as my papa's but Papa is a silly name for me."

Finnick makes the strange noise that time, earning himself a worried look from his son.

Dr. Aurelius smiles and gives me a look that tells me this is as much an explanation for Jack as it is for both Finnick and I. We're in therapy while we get to know each other. "What's her name, Jack?" he asks, pointing to me. "Do you know?"

"Well." He shifts and leans against me. "Well, I calls her Mama but Mrs. Tree and Mister Guy and Aunt Jo-Jo calls her Annie so I thinks her name is Annie."

"Very good, Jack. Your mama's name is Annie. Do you think your papa might have a name besides Papa?"

Jack leans away from me and eyes Finnick. "Yeah. But not Jack 'cause that's my name and some-y body said I was not named like you."

"Finnick." His shoulders are still shaking with barely held back sobs as he says it. "My name is Finnick Odair."

Our little boy lets out a squawk that startles us all. "Some-y body was stupid!" he shouts. "We does have the same name! Odair!" He quiets quickly and focuses on his father again. "You is my papa? Real or not real?"

Finnick looks at me once before he answers. "Real. You're my son," he whispers, "real or not real?"

He perks up again and stands on my leg, hooking an arm around my neck. "This guy knows our song and our game, Mama! He's my papa, for real!" He reaches just long enough to touch Finnick's cheek once again before he turns back to Dr. Aurelius. "Mama didn't eat all day, Doc. Can we gets her and my Papa something to eat? And me too?"

"We certainly can, Mr. Odair." He gets to his feet and lifts Jack onto the floor. "We won't be gone long, but we'll find something yummy for all of you and bring it right back."

As they leave, we can hear them discussing whether Aunt Jo-Jo might come back and eat with us.

Finnick puts his head on my shoulder and takes a deep breath when I wrap my arms around him. "He's so little. And big. And smart. And small. And perfect."

"Shhh," I murmur softly as I hold him. "You're going to be here for the rest of his life. That's what matters, Finnick. We're going to grow old together and we're going to watch him grow. I tried so hard to be strong and do right for him, for our son. Everyone says I've done good but I never wanted to do it alone and now I don't have to. We'll do it together, right?"

He picks his head up and touches his left hand to my chin, making me look at him. "I'm never leaving you again, not for anything. You know that, don't you?"

I sniff back tears and breathe slowly. "Try and leave me," I challenge him a second before I press my lips to his. It doesn't take him long to respond.

xoxoxoxo

We break apart when someone clears their throat.

"Kid in the room," Johanna says, winking at us as Jack sprints across the room and jumps up onto my lap. She's carrying a full tray and sets it on the table. "Kid who doesn't need a little brother or sister just yet."

I tell her to shut up and Finnick laughs. "You're Aunt Jo-Jo?" he says.

She throws her hands in the air and rolls her eyes. "You hear that, Jack? He thinks you might have someone else you call Aunt Jo-Jo? As if someone else could be your Aunt Jo-Jo!"

Jack giggles, as he always does when Johanna gets dramatic. "No, Papa," he says. "That's my Aunt Jo-Jo. She lives with us sometimes. I gots a picture of her holding me when I was real small and all gooey."

Finnick lets go of me long enough to pull Johanna into a hug. She plays it off and announces that she's still going to be a houseguest even though he's alive because with parents like the one's he's got, Jack will need her. I know she was Finnick's best friend and she's become the same for me. It wouldn't be a family if she's not there.

"Alright, you Odairs," she says, uncovering the dishes on the tray, "it's time to eat."

Jack helps her by passing out silverware but stops when he sees that the spoon he put in Finnick's right hand is shaking. He concentrates very hard and then takes the spoon back. "Me and Mama will help you, Papa," he says solemnly.

Johanna starts to tell him that Finnick can use his other hand but he shakes his head and asks Jack if he's really willing to help him.

"Sure. Mama helps me all the times. I helps her sometimes too," he adds proudly. "I will stand on the cushion 'tween you and Mama and me and Mama will help you."

And that's what we do. Between the three of us, and Johanna's quickness with napkins when Jack spills the soup, we all eat all of our food.

His belly full, Jack settles into my lap and looks at Finnick. "I tired, Mama. But if I go to sleep, will Papa go away?"

"I'm not going anywhere, Jack," Finnick tells him before I can say a word. "Never."

That satisfies the tired little boy and he lets himself fall asleep in my arms.

Johanna takes the opportunity to ask me a question she's never got around to asking before; why I named him Jack instead of Finnick.

"She did it for me," Finnick replies for me. "We talked about what we'd name our future children once, long before we were even married. I didn't want my son to have my name and I'm glad he doesn't."

"Jack is a name for an ordinary sailor," I add, telling Finnick why I chose it as much as I'm telling her, because he'd never actually said what he wanted. "Our son will be extraordinary with an ordinary name."

She allows herself a brief smile. "I like it, very much."

We're all quiet for a minute before Finnick exhales abruptly. "I have to ask; who are Mrs. Tree and Mister Guy? I've been trying to figure it out."

I laugh too loud and startle Jack for a minute but he settles back down. "Mister Guy is Haymitch. Jack called him that before I told him his name. Haymitch said it was fine. Mrs. Tree is Katniss' mother and it's all Johanna's fault."

She looks guilty as she tries hard not to. "Fine. I was trying to explain that her name is Everdeen and we'd been talking about different kinds of trees so he thought I said Evergreen. Mrs. Tree she became and no one can convince him otherwise."

"Katniss' mother moved to District Four when it was all over," I say, keeping things vague in case he doesn't know about why Alma Coin is not president. "She adores Jack and he adores her."

He looks tired but he fights sleep valiantly. "Did Katniss move to Four with her mother?"

"Nah, Brainless isn't that smart," Johanna answers for me. "Actually, when she was supposed to assassinate Snow, she shot the arrow at Coin and got confined to Twelve. I wonder if that's being lifted now? Anyway, since we thought her sister was dead, I don't think her mother figured she could deal with since she checked out once already, remember. So she sort of adopted Annie as her surrogate daughter."

"But she works very long days at the hospital that was built in Four," I say, whether in her defense or mine I'm not sure. I'm mostly worried about her blurting everything out. I remember what Dr. Aurelius said about how close Finnick and Primrose are and turn the focus to that, figuring it's where the doctor is. "Do you want to go check on Primrose?"

He tries not to look eager to do that, but I shake my head and get to my feet. "It's fine, Finnick. We victors are all very close now so if we need to be closer still for you and for Katniss' sister, we'll do it."

Johanna offers him her arm. "You heard your wife. Let's move, Odair."

A girl with green skin, who I recognize from Katniss' prep team, is waiting outside the door and says she'll take us to where everyone else is. She must've been there before because even Johanna's notorious suspicion of everyone and everything isn't bothered by her presence as we follow her to an elevator that takes us up two floors. President Paylor is waiting when the doors slide open.

"Thank you, Octavia," she says to the girl. "Will you find Fulvia Cardew and get the speech Plutarch wants me to give so I can change it?" She gives us a weary look when the girl disappears. "That man can go back into retirement any time he likes. But we're not here to talk about him. I just wanted to say that you're welcome to stay here as long as you like. You, and Primrose Everdeen's group, can stay here in this wing on this floor as long as necessary and you're free to go when you like. Dr. Aurelius knows this, so he may want to organize therapy or something while you're here. The only thing I'll bother you about is to eventually discuss how we will handle the Hathaway trial and a public statement, which will need to be made. But we've got time for that.

"In the meantime, Octavia will be back and she'll look after whatever you need. Eat your meals in the cafeteria or in your rooms, it doesn't matter to me. Just let her know. And if you need more pillows, blankets, clothes, toiletries, toys… there's no one better to organize that than Octavia."

"Thank you, President Paylor," I say shyly when neither Johanna nor Finnick says a word. "We'll try not to be too much of a bother."

"Happy endings three years after a war?" She shakes her head and pats my back. "Not possible to be a bother, Mrs. Odair. Let me know if you need anything."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Primrose Everdeen and Finnick are very much connected, so connected that Katniss and I are sitting in the same position on opposite sofas while the people just returned to us sleep in our laps. Haymitch is sprawled in a nearby chair, snoring loudly while Peeta sleeps more quietly in another chair. Johanna's laying on cot with Jack curled close to her. I want to sleep too, but I'm afraid that if I do Finnick will be gone.

"I'm afraid to sleep," Katniss whispers. "I'm afraid that if I do, she'll be gone and this will all have been a dream."

"Dr. Aurelius will probably lecture us about how we should have slept so we can be more use to them tomorrow," I whisper back. "What will we say?"

"Too bad," she laughs softly. "We've survived the Hunger Games, I've survived war, and you've survived being a prisoner in the Capitol. We work just fine on no sleep."

"You're braver than me, you say that. Just that way."

She smiles and brushes a lock of hair off her sister's forehead. "I will. Do you know what I'm nervous about? Dr. Aurelius asking us, you and me, to make decisions about what to do next. I only just started making decisions for myself again. My mother's coming in the morning, but I'm kind of scared she'll ask me to decide what's best for Prim."

"You can't decide together?"

She shakes her head. "You've seen my mother more in the last three years than I have. We don't usually make decisions together. What if she wants to take Prim to District Four? And maybe Prim _should_ be in District Four if she and Finnick need to be close together. What do I do then?"

Finnick's holding my hand while he sleeps and I squeeze him when I feel his body tense, my touch seems to relax him. "Well, find out if you're still confined to Twelve. Even if you are, see if President Paylor would transfer it to Four. You could come live by me in our Victor's Village."

To my surprise, she seems excited by that. Then she seems conflicted. "Twelve needs me," she sighs. "For what, I don't know but I probably can't leave. It might do Peeta good to be somewhere else though. But I don't want to be away from him."

"Stop worrying, Katniss," I tell her as firmly as I can, sort of hoping that the advice will rub off on me. "Worrying accomplishes nothing. We'll talk to Dr. Aurelius and President Paylor and your mother and Peeta and Prim and Finnick tomorrow. Together I'm sure we can all figure something out."

Somewhere in our conversation Haymitch stopped snoring. "What? No one's talking to me tomorrow?" he mutters just loud enough for us to hear. "That's fine. You two need to sleep, though. I'll stay awake and keep watch over them."

"I'm not moving," I tell him.

"Didn't say you should. Just close your eyes and try to sleep."

For some reason, his suggestion makes sense. I close my eyes, determined not to go completely to sleep. I just want to rest.


	7. Chapter 7

**Note: **The POV switches here, from Annie to Finnick. I hope you like it!

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

(Finnick)

Just before the lizard mutt leans in for the kill, someone shakes my shoulder and I wake up.

"Just a dream, Pretty Boy," Haymitch says, leaning over me but not letting go of my shoulder. There's something comforting about him remembering the nickname he and Chaff gave me. It makes waking more real. "You're safe and sound."

He seems to be standing awkwardly and I remember Annie.

"She's sleeping, Pretty Boy," he tells me. "Calm down unless you want to wake her up. Want me to help you sit up so you can see her properly or are you going back to sleep?"

"Help me sit up?" I don't really need help sitting up but I don't want to wake Annie. He helps me move to the other end of the sofa so I can keep my right side against the support. Seconds later, Annie slumps down and pulls herself over so that she's lying in my lap.

Haymitch chuckles softly. "That'll work too," he whispers before a noise from the corner distracts him. "What's the matter, Little Man?"

Jack rubs his fist into his eye and crosses his legs. "Gots a potty?" he asks sleepily.

"Don't move," Haymitch tells me as he lifts my little boy. "We'll be right back."

Prim sort of wakes up while he's gone and searches the room until she finds me. She points at her sister and gives me a huge smile, one I return when I point at Annie. Then she goes back to sleep.

When Haymitch and Jack return, my son notices that I'm awake and considers me for a long minute. I'm just starting to wonder if he's fallen asleep standing up when he steps close to my leg. "You is my papa," he says in a whisper. "You is awake when you should be a-sleepin'. You feels better if I sits on you." Before Haymitch or I can do anything, he hoists himself up and wedges himself between the arm of the chair and Annie. He's leaning against my chest with his thumb in his mouth a second later. His breathing slows fast and he's asleep.

"That'll work too," Haymitch says, repeating himself from earlier. "He okay there?"

"I feel better," I murmur. At some point, he goes back to his chair but I'm far too distracted watching my son and my wife sleep.

Too soon the peaceful stillness of the night comes to an end and everyone wakes up to face this new, unexpected day. I'm scared of the day, but I try to tell myself I'm not alone anymore and that I'm finally truly free.

Jack helps. My son helps.

He goes through a good morning kiss ritual with Annie and then tells me to pay attention while he does it all over again. And then he does it with me. "That's how we says good morning, Papa," he tells me. "Don't worry, I teach you again tomorrow."

I get chills every time he calls me Papa but he can never stop. "You promise to teach me again tomorrow?"

"Course I promise." He slides down to the floor and looks around the rooms. "Mama? Where's my stuff? I wanna show my Papa my stuff. He never sawed it before."

She takes him to the other side of the room where their bags are stored and he carries two tiny oars over while she carries his bag. "These is the oars Mister Guy made me," he says as he lays them in my lap. "Mama says I too little for my own boat so I use them on her boat. Mama says I'm a good rower."

Before I can ask any questions about his oars, he moves on to the other toys and favorite things in his bag. He'll have to tell me all of it again, but I have time to learn to enjoy everything with him.

President Paylor returns just as Jack finishes. Katniss and Primrose's mother is with her and their family reunion begins in earnest. Paylor offers them a private room but their mother says if the rest of us don't mind, she's fine staying where they are. So breakfast is laid out in a buffet on a table in the room.

Annie is in the bathroom washing up with Johanna when I tap Jack's shoulder. "Should we get breakfast for Mama or should we wait for her to come back?"

"Let's get breakfast for Mama," he says excitedly.

He climbs back up onto the sofa and then climbs onto my hip while I'm standing. I don't think he knows that my right side is so weak, so I turn so he'll climb onto my left side. I carry him to the table and push a plate along with my right hand while we very seriously consider what Annie might like to eat for breakfast. She ends up with a lot of sugary pastries and something tells me Jack will have the same things on his plate.

The bright side of our choices is that when I ask Jack if he can carry it to a place for us to sit, he hops to the floor and holds up his small hands. "I don't never drop stuff like this," he promises. And he doesn't. He carries the plate to a table in the room and sets it in front of an empty chair before he runs back over to me. He's a good climber and is back on my hip in the blink of an eye. "Is we getting your breakfast or my breakfast now, Papa?"

"How about both at the same time? You can be in charge of putting stuff on the plates and I'll move them along at the same time?" That's what we do. It's a little nerve-wracking but I managing not to knock either plate on the floor even though I'm using my weak hand to move them. When Jack and I have as many sugary pastries as Annie, I put him down again and we each carry our own plates.

He's only just put his plate on the table when he sees Annie return. "Mama! Look! We gots you your breakfast right here. I sits on your lap, okay?"

She runs across the room and scoops him up. "Of course it's okay," she says as she hugs him and kisses me. "My breakfast looks yummy. Thank you both."

I sit beside her and sigh when Primrose stops to move my silverware to the other side of my plate. "Prim," I groan when she puts a glass of milk on the same side. "I could've done that."

"You didn't have any milk and old habits die hard," she retorts, smiling a brighter smile than she's smiled in years.

"Did you get your lotion last night?" I ask, just to bug her.

She sits across the table from me, between Katniss and her mother. "Of course. You ratted me out to Katniss and every inch of me was thoroughly lotioned."

"I didn't rat you out to Katniss," I protest before Katniss can say a word. "I told Haymitch to tell Katniss about the lotion. He only said he'd ask Dr. Aurelius or Dr. Egan. They must've said that you needed it and that's how Katniss found out. Right, Katniss?"

She gapes at me a little but manages to compose herself. "Right. Dr. Aurelius gave me the lotion and told me how to use it for her. That's all I know." She turns to her sister. "You should've told me yourself. Did this Dr. Egan even know that you'd been using a lotion? Please tell me you told him."

Prim looks so guilty that even Jack giggles, although I'm sure he has no idea what's really going on. "I was going to tell him. I wasn't sure I needed it any more though."

Katniss looks at me. "I didn't pay attention when Dr. Aurelius explained why she needed it, I just took it and did what he said. She does need it, right?"

I take a deep breath because the answer requires talking about the people who held us, who gave her the lotion first. "They said it would keep her skin from firming up too much where they couldn't do anything about the burns. Dr. Egan or your mother might know something better but I just thought that, until then, she should keep it up."

"Finnick's right," Prim's mother says to her daughter.

"Mrs. Tree!" Jack squeals, apparently having just noticed her. "You is here and so is I!"

"Hi, Jack!" She plays up her excitement and surprise to match his. "How do you like it here?"

"It's good, but I miss my water. This my Papa," he says, jabbing me with a half-eaten doughnut. "I just founded him yesterdays. He gots eyes like mine."

"He certainly does," she agrees. "Did you meet my daughters?"

He points the doughnut at Katniss. "Her? I met Aunt Kat."

"She's my daughter, and this is Prim."

Jack turns to Annie. "Do I calls her Miss Prim or Aunt Prim?"

"Whatever you like, so long as she likes it too," she tells him.

He leans across my lap, smashing the doughnut between the palm of his small hand and the fabric of my gray pants. "You seems nice. Can I calls you Aunt Prim?"

She smiles brightly again. "Yes. Please call me Aunt Prim. I want someone to call me that and it's going to take Katniss forever to have a baby. You're cute, so I'll have you for a nephew."

Katniss turns a vivid shade of red that the citizens of the Capitol would've loved five years ago but she's saved from having to think of a response, and Peeta too since he's almost the same shade of red, by my son.

"I'm not Cute," he informs her seriously. "I'm Jack."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

A few hours later, I'm mildly alarmed when Haymitch follows me into the bathroom.

"Relax, Pretty Boy," he says. "I've been ordered here by your wife to make sure you're all right."

I raise my eyebrow and motion for him to turn his back to me. "I did come in here because I need to go to the bathroom. Please don't try to help me."

"Wouldn't dream of it." He turns around and stares at the door. "So. Anything you want to ask me?"

I don't answer until I've finished. "Did you spend time with Annie?"

He surreptitiously watches me lift my right hand to the sink with my left hand. "Some. I couldn't do too much because I was named Katniss' guardian after she assassinated Coin and got declared nuts. Annie came and visited Twelve two or three times just after Jack was born. I've been to Four a handful of times."

I dry my hands and stuff my weak one into my pocket mostly to distract myself from it. "She seems okay. I guess."

He leans against the door and crosses him over his chest. "As okay as she can be, I think. She knew she had to be strong for Jack. Never for a minute did she try to run away from being a mother. I thought she would, Finnick, but she proved me wrong. She told me once she was trying to be for him what you were for her."

I shake my head and shift my weight to my left leg. "I wasn't much for her."

"Don't make me tell her you said that," he warns. "You taught her to live and to love when she forgot how. She might've forgotten again but you gave her Jack. Now you have him too. And her."

"I'm never letting them go."

He nods and stands up straight to open the door. "See that you don't. Now, the less time I spend in a bathroom with you the better. I believe you have an appointment with Dr. Aurelius?"

xoxoxoxo

Dr. Aurelius is actually hosting what he calls a group session from Prim, myself, and our family and friends. Apparently he's decided that none of us will be helped by an extended stay in the Capitol so the first order of business will be to decide where we all go from here.

When Annie, Jack, and I arrive in the room we're using for the session, it's clear that things are tense. Not in the way Haymitch and Peeta seem to have expected, though, given the confused looks on their faces.

My family sits on a sofa with Johanna, who is only too happy to fill us in. "Prim is royally ticked that her mother lives in Four and has since Katniss got sentenced to Twelve," she whispers. "Understandable. However, now Prim is dismayed that Katniss says she doesn't care, that she's forgiven her mother for, you know, abandoning her for what I can only gather is 'again'. Prim says she wants to go to Twelve and that her mother can do whatever she wants. Katniss wants Prim to want to go to Four. Katniss plans to sweet talk Paylor or Plutarch or whoever needs to be sweet talked to get out of her sentence so she can go too. Peeta hasn't said a word and I think Haymitch figures Katniss is about to get her way because he told me to remind him to ask you about what's good to drink in Four. And if you can raise geese there. This is going to be an awesome therapy session."

"Geese?" I ask Annie, totally confused to the point that I'm not even sure if I should wonder why I need to be present if the Everdeens have that many issues.

"He raises geese when his liquor runs out," she explains. "I have no idea why."

Dr. Aurelius arrives then and puts a stop to the Everdeen argument. He offers Jack paper and colored pencils, and they are eagerly accepted. He even slides off Annie's lap and sprawls on the floor on his stomach. "Why don't we all just check in on how we're doing for a few minutes?" Dr. Aurelius suggests. "President Paylor will be joining us and, from what I eavesdropped on from the hallway, I think she'll have much to add to our long term conversation."

And that's what we do. We make small talk about silly things until Paylor arrives and sits in the circle with us. It's kind of ominous, really.

Dr. Aurelius starts by announcing that he is going to transition being a doctor who makes house calls, as it were, and visits his patients wherever they may be. Then he asks Johanna what her plans are when she leaves the Capitol.

"The usual," she replies, telling me that he knows what she does. I'm glad for that because she needs help. "I'll wander around between Seven, Four, Twelve, and Two. Just how I like it."

Annie squeezes my weak hand and it almost feels whole again. "She hardly ever goes to Seven," she whispers to me. "She visits Twelve but mostly splits her time between Four and Two."

I lean around my wife to look at my best friend. "What's in Two?"

"Who," Annie corrects me, smiling when Johanna Mason, the last person I'd ever expect to do it, blushes a bright red. "The question is _who _is in Two."

I'm about to ask that question when Jack answers it for me. "I know, Mama," he says, not stopping his coloring. "Mister Gale is in Two. That's who Aunt Jo-Jo likes."

I look at Katniss. "Your cousin?"

"Not actually my cousin, but yes."

Johanna smacks her hand against the arm of the sofa. "This is not a therapy session about me, people. I'm going to carry on just as I was before. I am involved with Gale Hawthorne, yes. He's not in Two right now, anyway. He's in Twelve. So there. Move along, nothing to see here."

There is so very much to see here but we do move along.

Haymitch says that he'll go wherever he needs to be. He assures Dr. Aurelius he has no super strong connections to anything, only to the people.

Katniss' mother says she'll go wherever her daughters are, and already Prim is softening toward her mother. I knew it wouldn't last long.

"Before we go further," President Paylor interrupts, "I want to say that Katniss, you are free to leave District Twelve and travel where you like. To live in a district other than Twelve for the next five years, you will need to secure the permission of the mayor of that district and any victors still living from that district. That will be your probation. Please keep talking to Dr. Aurelius, though, alright? It's not an order, just a request as a friend."

She's practically bouncing over her newfound freedom. "I will, I promise," she says to both of them.

"Excellent," Dr. Aurelius says. "I'm correct in assuming that you; Finnick and Annie, will go wherever in the world you need to go so long as you're together?"

"Yes," we say in oddly perfect unison.

He smiles and nods. "Then shall we discuss what might be best for my newest patients or shall I just tell you what I think might be best?"

"Just tell us," Prim says eagerly but nervously.

"Alright. I think that even beyond the bond that Primrose and Finnick formed during the captivity that they shared, the group of you here - even you, Haymitch, and you, Mrs. Everdeen - need each other. The closer together you are, the stronger you can be for one another.

"It is therefore my recommendation that you all stay as close together as possible. Split time between Districts Four and Twelve. When you're in a district besides the one you were born in, it'll be a break from the memories. When you're in a district that you were born in, you can learn to confront the memories and the things that haunt you."

No one disagrees with him.

Haymitch even says he'll spend half his time in Four.

Before we can start going around and around about where to go first or for how long, President Paylor leaves and is replaced by Dr. Egan. He tells us that he's about to begin work at the newly built medical center in District Twelve but that his friend is a doctor at the hospital in Four. He assures us that we're covered when it comes to doctors. Then he says that water therapy will be essential to both mine and Prim's recoveries, that it will be easier to stretch and exercise our dormant muscles in the lower impact environment of water. So he wants us to spend three months in Four, then three in Twelve, and back again.

Katniss looks almost as happy as I imagine I do.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

That night we sleep in beds in the Mansion. No more sofas and sitting up and waking up in fear of what's to come and waking up knowing something is missing. I sleep with my wife in my arms and our son sprawled on top of us. Nothing in the world could possibly make me happier than I am in those moments.

xoxoxoxo

We board a hovercraft to District 4 two days later.

I promise Annie then and there that I will never set foot in the Capitol again.

She says I might, but I won't. I've lost too much to the Capitol. I'm taking my life back for the first time in thirteen years.

When Jack sees me crying on the hovercraft, he slips off Annie's lap and climbs onto mine. He doesn't say anything. He just settles himself in and then picks up my arms and arranges them so that I'm hugging him. He doesn't say anything then when my tears fall onto his bronze hair.

When we land, though, he leaps off my lap and bounces by the exit while he waits for the door to open. "I missed-ed the sand, Mama!" he squeals. "I gots to see my sand and my sea and my bed and my hammock. I missed-ed it _all_, Mama!"

She grabs his hand and tries to settle him. It's really a futile effort. "It didn't go anywhere, buddy," she says. "All your things are still right where you left them. I promise."

"He won't believe it until he sees it," Haymitch laughs from behind me. Something tells me he's there to catch me if I get weak, or something stupid like that, when I see home.

I move away from him and take Jack's other hand. "I missed all that stuff too," I tell him, trying to keep my voice from breaking. "I bet I'm more excited than you are."

"No way," he argues firmly. "I is _way_ more excited than you."

I kick off my shoes and bend long enough to pull of my socks. He watches me closely, then turns his attention to Annie when she does the same thing. "Take off your shoes and socks, Jack," I tell him.

I'm sure he does it because Annie did it, but he's barefoot in the blink of an eye.

Everyone else stays back as the door lowers. I can only imagine what they're thinking about us, but I don't care. I've done this every time I've come home from the Capitol since my first trip as a tribute and I don't intend to miss out on it now.

When the door is fully open, Annie and I move in perfect unison to run down the ramp. Jack's mostly hoisted between us but he's still moving his legs as if he's running. And once we hit the sun warmed sand, we all tumble into one big pile. She kisses me while Jack laughs and then he wedges himself between us.

It's perfect, in every way.

xoxoxoxo

By the time night falls on the place I love, I haven't gone inside at all. Jack's been content to drag his toys and games outside or just run Johanna ragged in the sand, so I never had to go inside. Three years inside make me want to be outside as much as possible.

"I'm glad we came here first," Prim says from the lounge chair beside me where we've both been ordered to rest by Katniss and Annie, who are making supper. "We can stay outside. I like that. It's probably snowing in Twelve."

I grimace at the thought. "Yeah, maybe it is good we need water to get better. Not that I'm trying to avoid Twelve."

"There's a lake there. I've seen it once. It's just best that it be warm but not hot because it's a really, really long walk from the district." She looks out at the ocean and sighs. "Did you ever think we'd get out of there. I did, for awhile. Then I started to imagine that maybe Katniss hadn't survived or my mother either. If they weren't alive, I didn't know if I wanted to live out here in the world."

"I worried about that too but I wasn't ready to give up without proof. I had to see for myself." I shake my head when she gives me a look. "No, really. I was almost ready to figure out a way to break us out."

She hasn't stopped giving me the look.

"Fine," I say, admitting a degree of defeat. "What I did know was that Cleo was putting poison in Titus' food. If he died, it would've been easy to overpower her and get out."

She agrees to that but looks pensive. "Do you think we'll have to go back and testify against Cleo and Titus? If he doesn't die from the poison, that is."

I shrug. "Maybe. If we do, it'll be over and that'd be a good thing. I trust Paylor to make it as low impact for us as possible, though. Haymitch told me that Plutarch's more into pure entertainment and probably won't have the final decision over whether or not the trial would be televised and milked for publicity. So there's that."

She sits up and turns to look at me, the moonlight making strange, ethereal patterns on the burn marks on her face. "Did we decide how it's being announced that we're alive? Did I miss that?"

I laugh softly at her sudden worry and shake my head. "Yes and no. Paylor's going to announce that we're alive when she announces the charges against the Hathaways. She said she'll send Cressida and Pollux to film us when Dr. Aurelius and Dr. Egan say we're ready to film a statement."

That relaxes the girl I've gotten to watch grow from a determined young girl into a determined young woman and she leans back again. "Oh, well, that sounds fine. I hope supper is almost ready. I am so hungry."

Katniss must hear her because she brings over loaves of bread and a pitcher of tea mere seconds later. Annie follows with a pot of fish soup and everyone gathers around us to eat. Jack's so exhausted that I doubt he'll make it much past supper, if that. I'm tired too but I'm afraid again that it's all a dream that will disappear if I close my eyes.

Haymitch takes charge of arranging things while we eat. There's an empty house next door to the house Annie and I get to share once again. Prim, Katniss, their mother, Peeta, and Haymitch will all stay there. Johanna will stay with me, Jack, and Annie. Katniss' mother announces then that the Hawthornes, who are definitely not cousins of the Everdeens, want to come see Prim so she'll let them stay at the house she rented in town.

The people from District 12 head to their house shortly after Mrs. Everdeen and Haymitch clean up the supper dishes. Prim and I promise to send Johanna and Peeta to the other house if we wake up during the night and need each other, and then she's gone. It'll be the first night in almost three years that I don't sleep next to the almost seventeen year old who I now think of as my little sister. It's odd, but I'm easily distracted by the fact that I get to spend the night with Annie for the first time in almost three years.

Johanna picks up my half asleep son and holds him above me so we can go through our goodnight kiss routine. He's so tired that he doesn't even correct me when I mix it up a little. "Aunt Jo-Jo and Nephew Jack will be sleeping in his room," she says as she holds him out to Annie. "Finnick, in case you didn't know, his room is right next to your bedroom. That being said, both of you please be remembering the small boy close by."

Things like this used to upset Annie but she rolls her eyes. "You're just imagining things for yourself if your dreams come true and _all _of the Hawthornes come to see Prim."

She huffs, making it clearly that Annie got it right, and stalks into the house.

"She gets very antsy if she's away from Two for too long," Annie tells me, her soft laughter filling the quiet night. "Haymitch said she was in Twelve and she said Gale only got there just before she left so it's been awhile."

It's probably the last thing anyone would expect the two of us to talk about after what we've been through, but I've always been able to just _be _with Annie and discussing Johanna is the perfect way to do that. "Are they just, you know, friends with benefits?"

She nudges me over and sits with me on the lounge chair, resting her head on my chest. "It started out that way, I think. She was angry over everything that happened. He blamed himself for Prim's death and Katniss blamed him too. They found solace in their animalistic natures. Then she started talking about him to me. Then she started calling him from here. They would talk for hours. Then, just a few months ago, she told me she missed Jack being a baby."

I can feel her heart beating against my ribs and I wrap my arms around her. "Do you think she wants to have a baby?"

"Mm-hmm," she hums. "And I think she _needs_ to have a baby. I still get scared and unsure and I still want to cover my ears and hide from the world. Having Jack, though, it taught me that I can be strong _and_ weak at the same time. I think Johanna needs that. I think she has it a little with Gale, but she's always worried that his presence will be fleeting. He's not going anywhere, I don't think, but she worries about it. She needs a family."

I've always thought that about Johanna and I do it even more when Annie puts it that way. I hold her for a while longer and sigh when the moon reaches its highest point over the water. "Should we go to bed?"

"We don't have to. We can sleep here," she offers softly. "Or we can go for a moonlit walk on the beach like we used to while we decide."

A walk it is.

We walk a little way down the beach, knowing our footprints in the wet sand will let anyone looking know where we are. Low tide will make sure they stay there awhile and we'll be back before then. We find our way to a mostly hidden cove and wade into the warm water.

It doesn't take long for our animalistic nature to take over.

And Jack never hears a sound.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

We never make it inside. After we get back from the cove, we just return to the lounge chair and she sleeps in my arms. Then we wake up the best way in the world when Jack climbs up and wedges himself between us.

"Hi, Papa." He kisses me and then kisses Annie. "Hi, Mama. How come you is already outside? How come you is wearing the same clothes as before? How come your feets is all sandy?"

We answer his questions as best we can without actually telling the truth. It doesn't help that Johanna's standing the doorway with a knowing smirk on her face. "Don't need to be hesitant about getting back into the water?" she asks when Jack is satisfied and running across the sand to say good morning to Mrs. Everdeen. "Or are you going to fake that?"

My left arm still works perfectly fine and the pillow from the chair hits her in the face before she knows I'm throwing it. "I'm going to take a shower."

Annie looks nervous about me leaving her sight, and I'm nervous about it too, but Dr. Aurelius suggested that plunging back into normalcy was probably the best way to adjust to a life of freedom. We decided to follow his advice. And one parent would watch the child while the other showered. Showered quickly, of course.

This doesn't pass Johanna by. "Did the bathtub even get wet?" she asks.

I don't have time for a comeback, though, because she sees something over my shoulder, shrieks, and runs past me. I turn in time to see her throw herself into the arms of Gale Hawthorne.

"Told you," Annie whispers as she corrals Jack to sit down and eat his pancakes for breakfast. She does a double take when she sees Prim throw herself at Gale's younger brother just the same way.

"I knew they weren't actually cousins," I tell her as I sit in the sand beside Jack, who promises to help me eat my pancakes if I need it. "She told me. She had a crush on Rory that she had to give up when he became her fake cousin. Apparently she still has a crush on him."

They're too far away to hear anything but it's clear that Katniss knows less than I do, given the way she's pacing circles over where they're lying in the sand with their arms and legs tangled together.

"Mama, there isn't no syrup on my pancakes," Jack announces. "How come?"

Annie also forgot silverware and she looks bothered by what she forgot so I do my best to make it better for her. Using my stronger hand, I roll my pancake into a tube. "Doesn't matter if there's no syrup, Jack. You can eat it like this." I take a bite to demonstrate. "It's more to fun to eat it with your fingers anyway and you can't do that if there's syrup."

He squeals in delight and copies me. "This be even yummier, Mama! Try it!"

The tension fades from her body and she rolls up her pancake. "Yep, definitely yummier," she laughs. "Don't forget to drink your juice."

He tries to use his straw-like pancake to drink his juice before either of us can stop him. Luckily, it doesn't all spill and it's mango juice so he declares that the pancake tastes even better when it gets wet from mango juice.

In the end, the three of us make a horrible mess drinking mango juice with pancakes, to the point that Haymitch sees us and wonders aloud if Dr. Aurelius might want to know that we've lost our collective minds. Maybe we have. I don't care.

xoxoxoxo

Over the next few days, we all find some sense of what is supposed to be.

Jack's young enough that he accepts my sudden appearance in his life without question and I quickly become the person he runs to when he knows he did something Annie told him not to do, like walking through a cast of crabs and having one bite his toe. He must know she'll be upset by that because he makes it to me before the tears even spill down his cheeks and even then he muffles his sobs in my chest while I remove the crab. Keeping in mind that parenting is complicated and takes two people, I make him tell her what he did anyway.

He's such a good boy, though, that he would've told her sooner or later on his own. And he takes his punishment of no mango juice for one day without complaint.

He always volunteers to swim with me when I'm doing my therapy and the doctor Dr. Egan referred me to quickly decides that playing games in the water with Jack and Annie is better than anything he could devise. Everything is easier in the water, anyway, and I hate having to get out again.

So I don't, if I can help it. Annie and I teach Rory, Vick, and Posy Hawthorne how to swim while Katniss teaches Prim and Peeta. Johanna knows a little, but she spends most of her time out of sight in the cove with Gale. She says she's teaching him to swim there but no one believes it's as simple as that. Haymitch and Mrs. Hawthorne mostly sit on the beach and watch us, while Mrs. Everdeen works in the hospital or sits with them.

Haymitch and Hazelle flirt, although they deny it, when they're alone.

The Hawthornes plan to stay in 4 until the Everdeens go to 12 because the school isn't yet rebuilt in 12 and they can go to school in 4. For kids, they're oddly excited to go to school. So much so that Jack cries the first day his new best friend, and future wife according to him and to Johanna's mock dismay, Posy goes off to school. He really wants to go with her.

So Annie and I do what the average parent in District 4 has always done to district small children. We teach him how to tie knots and weaves nets. She hasn't taught him any of that yet, so we start at the beginning with him.

It has the added bonus of reminding the muscles in my right hand of what they already knew how to do and working through the simplest knots and steps gives me more use of my fingers.

It's going to be okay.

I know that now. Without out a doubt.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

After a few weeks, Gale has to return to his job in District 2 for a little while and Johanna announces that she's going with him. I know I'm not the only one who has noticed Haymitch and Mrs. Hawthorne because when she asks her son if he's going to marry Johanna, I hear him ask her if he's officially getting a stepfather. She turns red and lets the matter drop.

Before Gale and Johanna leave, though, Annie and I decide to give them a proper send-off and take them sailing.

xoxoxoxo

Peeta and Gale drop anchor on the sailboat when we can't see land anymore.

"I can see why you feel alive out here," Gale says to me when Peeta moves away to stand with Katniss at the rail. "I feel like a gust of wind could lift me up and carry me away."

I know what he means. "You don't miss the trees and the rocks?"

"That'll always be home, but this is different." He rests his elbows on the rail and looks out at the water. "When you come to Twelve, we'll take you out into the woods that make me feel alive. Sitting on the edge of a cliff looking out at a valley where no one lives and few people walk is a lot like this is right now."

"I thought you were going to Two."

"I am, for a little while." His gaze drifts to Johanna, sitting by his siblings with her legs dangling under the rail. "I have a family. Twelve is home, Twelve is family."

I smile when I see my friend throw her head back and laugh loudly at something Posy says. "You're good for her," I tell him. "Take care of her."

"As much as she'll let me and a little more," he promises. "I didn't want to love someone because I didn't think anyone deserved to get stuck with me. But I love her. I don't know why."

"Don't question it. Ever." I shiver at the memory of all the times I questioned what I felt for Annie after I realized that I loved her. "That'll only make life more difficult for you and for her. Besides, she's not stuck with you. I knew Johanna for four years before the Quarter Quell and she was the same as you. She didn't want to love anyone. She loves you too, though. And I'm sure she wonders why just as much."

"But we shouldn't talk about it?"

The look on his face says he knows the answer so I laugh when I give it to him. "No! Never. Unless you talk about it just long enough to agree to go with it and see where it takes you." I nudge him toward her. "Go laugh and have fun. Go on."

He doesn't need to be told twice and it isn't long before Posy and Johanna have him laughing hard too.

With that settled, I head in the opposite direction to find my son. And I find him loosely tied to the railing with a small fishing pole clutched in his hands. He'll never catch anything with a pole that small but it's more concerning that he's tied up.

"I almost felled overboard," he explains when I tug on the rope. "Mister Guy tied-ed me up so I didn't fall ins."

"Where's your Mama?" I sit beside him and untie the rope, transferring him to my lap and wrapping an arm around his waist. "How come you're fishing alone?"

"Mama putted her hands over her ears so I'm being a good buddy and fishing by myself." He twists in my lap, nearly dropping his pole in the water. "Don't worry, Papa. Mama will be okay soon, just like always."

I can see into the center of the boat and I see that Mrs. Hawthorne and Katniss are with her. So I stay where I am. We're not perfect, but at least we're all together.

Annie returns a few minutes later and apologizes to Jack but he's really too busy trying to wish a fish onto his line to pay her much attention. This is old habit for them. Anyone can see that.

"Jack," I say when it's clear that he's about to get upset about the lack of fish on his line. "Jack, did your Mama ever tell you about the time a sea turtle stole my hat?"

He almost drops his pole in the ocean, and she catches it just in time. "No. Never. Tell me, Papa. Tell me, please."

So I tell him the story. He dissolves into giggles about halfway through and Annie follows not long after, because it is truly hard not to laugh when a child is laughing.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

Mutts.

Lizard mutts.

They are everywhere.

And they're going after Jack.

Small, strong hands grab my arms just as I lurch out of bed and I thrash against the restraint.

"Finnick Odair, you listen to me. It's a dream. It's a nightmare. It's not real, Finnick. Breathe and come back to me. Please."

I sink back onto the bed and Annie sits beside me. I glance at her warily. "Did I hurt you?"

She wraps her arms around me and leans her head on my shoulder. "No."

"You're lying to me, aren't you?"

She laughs softly and tightens her grip. "Not really. You only grabbed me with your weaker arm. It would've hurt more if you weren't hurt but you didn't hurt me." She leans up and kisses my cheek. "Now tell me, what did you dream about?"

"Mutts. The ones from the sewers that did this to me. They were after Jack."

She gets to her feet and pulls me up. "What would you tell me to do if I had that dream?"

"Go check on him?"

She smiles and I let her lead me out of our room and to the doorway of his. That's not really good enough for either of us, though, so we bend and twist our bodies so that both of us can fit in his bed with him. He's alright with it. Or that's what it seems like when he stretches out on top of us and goes right back to sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

**And this is it. **The final chapter. Thank you so incredibly much to everyone reading this and to everyone who left such sweet, lovely reviews of all the previous chapters. You made the story worth writing!

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

(Annie)

As the months go by, it's like Finnick was never gone.

The therapy in our ocean, and playing with his son, it makes him almost whole again. He walks almost without a limp and although he doesn't have full use of his right arm, he's learned how to work with the limits to his body. Even his nightmares come less and less often. When they come, they terrify him, but I help him pull himself back into the light.

I don't think my son will ever remember days when his father wasn't beside him.

I always remember the worst days but then I open my eyes and remember that these are the best days.

We spend half our time in District 12 and it's just as good there. Jack misses the ocean dearly but he loves playing in the woods. Even more than that, he loves being spoiled by his Aunt Jo-Jo, who moved there with Gale, and his Aunt Kat as they compete hard to be his "most favoritest aunt in all the world" in the trees and woods there so that he'll be distracted from wondering about where the ocean went.

And Prim recovers as well as Finnick does. Her cat is still alive, hissing happily at Katniss and purring even more happily as he cuddles on Prim's lap while she cuddles with Rory Hawthorne. The cat even found himself a mate so when his time on earth is up, she'll still have his kittens.

President Paylor arranges for the Hathaways to be tried for only the original charges that they faced. Neither Finnick nor Prim wants to return to the Capitol to testify against them so when Paylor assures them that the Hathaways will never walk free, given the crimes they are known to be guilty of, they drop the charges related to them.

It's really fine with me.

The best thing about our districts is that the people accept it as fact that we all just want to be normal. When camera crews or Capitol citizens arrive looking for Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick, the people who are our neighbors in both districts deny that we're there. Some even assure the seekers that we're in the other district, because it is known that's what we do.

It's perfect, for everyone.

It's even more perfect a few months later when we become a family of four.

We name her Mags, the only name we could ever give our daughter.

And with that, life is truly and finally complete.

* * *

**The End**


End file.
